Английская Википедия:INFICON

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INFICON (Instruments For Intelligent Control) is headquartered in Bad Ragaz (Switzerland) and is engaged in the development, manufacture and supply of instruments, sensor technology and process control software for the semiconductor and vacuum-coating industries. They supply instruments for gas leak detection in refrigeration, air conditioning, the automotive industry and for the analysis and identification of toxic chemicals.

INFICON has manufacturing facilities in Europe, the United States and China. INFICON has subsidiaries in China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

History

Inficon was founded in Syracuse, New York by a group of scientists and engineers from General Electric (GE) and Syracuse University (SU), who developed a halogen leak detector in December 1969.

In January 1976, Inficon was acquired by Leybold-Heraeus GmbH a vacuum technology company. Due to this acquisition, Inficon became known as Inficon Leybold-Heraeus.

In 1987, Leybold-Heraeus GmbH, the parent company of Inficon, was purchased by Degussa AG, and the name was changed to Leybold AG. At this point, Inficon Leybold-Heraeus became Leybold Inficon, Inc.

In 1993, Oerlikon-Bührle Holding AG (OBH), which owned Balzers AG, reached a deal to buy Leybold AG from Degussa AG. Formed in 1994, Balzers and Leybold Holding AG became the world's largest vacuum and surface technology company as a result of this purchase. Leybold Inficon, Inc. of Syracuse with Balzers Instruments of Liechtenstein and two Leybold instrument groups of Germany then became Balzers and Leybold Instrumentation (BLI).

In 1998, the Oerlikon-Bührle Group was split up and the core business was renamed Unaxis.

Файл:INFICON Timeline History.JPG

History Timeline for INFICON

In July 2000, Balzers AG and Leybold AG became a part of Unaxis and the instrument group was spun off forming INFICON Holding AG in Switzerland. Combined with Leybold Inficon, Inc. the three instrument groups then became INFICON. On November 9, 2000, INFICON joined the Nasdaq and SIX Swiss Exchange with a public offering under the ticker symbol "IFCN".

In February 2005, INFICON delisted its stock from Nasdaq, but continues to trade on the SIX Swiss Exchange to this day.

Products

• Chemical Detection & Utility Monitoring
• Gas Analysis
• Leak Detectors
• Protective Coating
• Recovery & Evacuation
• RF Sensing Technology
• Smart Manufacturing
• Thin Film Technology
• Vacuum Gauges & Controllers
• Vacuum Components

Innovation Projects and Collaborations

Innovation is a fundamental part of INFICON. With investments in research projects and collaborations with renowned international organizations, INFICON explores new technologies and dedicates know-how and resources to support technological advancements. Among others, INFICON is involved in the following projects:

Measure and Quantify on the Lunar Surface

The NASA Artemis Program, where commercial mass spectrometers from INFICON help to measure the payload on the moon and prepare for human exploration.

Integrating Sensors into Robots

The ARAMMIS (Autonomous Robot for Area Mapping, Monitoring and In-situ Sensing) project is a collaboration between ETH Zurich's Robotic Systems Lab and INFICON. Solving robotic limitations and enhancing capabilities, the project integrates advanced sensors from INFICON into a wheeled-legged robot.

Improving Volcanic Monitoring

INFICON collaborates with global research institutions to change and improve volcanic monitoring by deploying instruments including the IRwin® portable gas monitor and Transpector® MPH membrane inlet MS.

Under Water Mass Spectrometer - Expedition in the South Atlantic Ocean

The Transpector® CPM plays an important role in the Alfred-Wegener-Institut's underwater mass spectrometer (UWMS), employed by scientists to explore and quantify methane sources in marine environments. This technology enables the precise in-situ measurement of methane emissions, contributing to a deeper understanding of the global carbon cycle and aiding the development of civil defense protocols for volcanic activity.

Markets

Products from INFICON are used in a wide range of markets. The most important markets include the following:

Analytical Instrumentation

INFICON works together with manufactures of analytical instrumentation to analyse and identify structures or element compositions, may it be gas, liquid, or solid.

Battery

INFICON products help to manage electrode production, or end-of-line testing of fully assembled battery cells of electric vehicles, mobile devices, power tools, medical devices or solar power generation.

Display

Sensors from INFICON employ process sensing technologies including thin film controllers, residual gas analysis, optical emission spectrometry, quartz crystal microbalance, leak detectors, pressure gauges and RF measurements. Coupled with proprietary software, users have real-time visibility into their processes, and immediate control of their equipment.

Energy

INFICON provides gas analyzers for component monitoring and compositional analysis and for Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission localization and monitoring in alternate energy markets composed of various sources of non-fossil-based fuels including: hydrogen, syngas, biomass, and biomethane.

Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heating (HVACR)

INFICON provides various types of leak detection products for Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heating Systems. Beside industrial solutions, INFICON also offers tools for HVACR service and repair.

Industrial Manufacturing

With vacuum sensors and leak detectors from INFICON, customers can improve the output and the quality of their processes.

Mobility & Automotive

INFICON offers leak detection solution for all automotive tasks like fuel tanks, injection systems, airbag gas generators, individual Lithium-ion battery cells or battery packs, the bipolar plates of hydrogen fuel cells or the ADAS sensors of autonomous vehicles

Packaging

Leak detection technology from INFICON ensures that leaks in packaging are identified and prevented, with function principles requiring no test gas to avoid damage to tested packaging, complying with DIN EN 1779 standard for non-destructive testing of leaks.

Pharma & Medical

Sensors and software from INFICON allow for collecting real-time process data, therefore, capturing critical process parameters that affect critical quality attributes. Additional software solutions enable the collecting of real-time data for monitoring and reporting, including providing SPC charts and process capability data.

Research & Academia

INFICON provides solutions for vacuum sensing and control, leak detection and residual gas analysis for research applications like particle accelerators, fusion technology, space simulation, and material science.

Semiconductor IDM & Foundry

INFICON semiconductor sensors employ process sensing technologies including residual gas analysis, optical emission spectrometry, quartz crystal microbalance, leak detectors, pressure gauges and RF measurements. Coupled with proprietary software, users have real-time visibility into their processes.

Semiconductor Tool Manufacturer

INFICON offers sensors to serve processes monitoring applications for semiconductor manufacturing tools. The core technologies include mass spectrometry, quartz crystal microbalance, RF DC detectors, optical sensors, vacuum gauges and leak detectors.

Security

The identification of narcotics, Chemical Warfare Agents (CWA), Fourth Generation Agents (FGA), explosives and toxic industrial chemicals is critical in this market. INFICON provides products to identify unknown compounds in various states of matter either vapor, liquid or solid.

Vacuum Coating

INFICON offers RGAs, QCM sensors, leak detectors, and vacuum gauges for high-accuracy monitoring of short or long vacuum processes.

Acquisitions

• In February 2006, Electro Dynamics Crystal Corp. was acquired and began operating as a subsidiary with the name INFICON EDC, Inc.
• In May 2007, the company acquired Maxtek Inc.
• In December 2007, INFICON acquired Sigma Instruments Inc.
• In February 2016, US based, InstruTech Inc., was acquired by INFICON.
• In October 2018, Final Phase Systems LLC, assets of a software developer, and Techno-Tools Corp., assets of a manufacturer of hand-held leak detectors, were acquired by INFICON.
• In January 2024, all Assets of Smart Manufacturing Software Specialist FabTime were acquired.

External links

• INFICON – Milestones